Velta 1.4.89 encrypts profile data on Android

Until now Velta’s messages were end-to-end encrypted on the way, but stored as a plain database on your device. On Android, 1.4.88 was the last release where that was true.

Encrypted at rest on Android

On Android, every profile’s message database is now encrypted, with the key in the phone’s secure key store. On first start after the update, Velta converts your existing data once: it writes an encrypted copy, checks it, and only then swaps it in — an interrupted update loses nothing.

On Windows, macOS, Linux and in the browser app the same encryption is a preview for now. Attachments are not encrypted yet — that is work in progress.

Privacy & security

A new Privacy & security screen in the side menu gathers the lock settings for the whole app — they used to hide inside each profile’s management screen, although one key protects all profiles.

• App-lock PIN — Velta asks for it at every start, with growing waits after wrong tries. Now on Android too.
• Biometric lock on Android — your fingerprint, or on Android 11 and later the phone’s own screen-lock PIN, pattern or password, so it works even without a fingerprint set up. It combines with the Velta PIN: the lock screen offers Use PIN.
• Lock when hidden after 1, 5 or 15 minutes.

Until attachment encryption lands, attachments rely on the system’s app isolation and disk encryption; the screen tells you which applies on your device. Keep a backup — without the PIN and the device key, the data cannot be opened.

Steadier chats

• Opening a chat can no longer get stuck for minutes when the messaging engine stalls; tapping again retries.
• Images and videos keep their height while they load, so the chat stops jumping.
• A deleted message keeps its place while Undo is offered, then folds away smoothly; its label is readable in every theme.
• The thread button is a small icon on the bubble’s corner, and the device chat offers French or Russian when your system speaks it.

• Release notes
• Compare 1.4.88 with 1.4.89